2021 Global Health 50/50 Report

Gender equality: Flying blind in a time of crisis

Now in its 4th year, the Global Health 50/50 Report finds that action to dismantle gender inequality inside organisations and to apply a gender lens in health programmes remains scarce.

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven that gender matters - to career pathways, to people’s risk of disease and death, to shaping equitable, effective health policies. Yet the 2021 report reveals that the vast majority of activities to address the health impacts of COVID-19 ignored the role of gender. In a male-default world, the report finds that gender as a driver of everyone’s health, including that of men and boys, remains under-addressed. The result: gender-blind pandemic responses that are less effective than they should be, with grave consequences for the health of people everywhere.

Flying Blind also reports the appointment of yet another cohort of mostly male global health leaders, predominantly from high-income countries, with the mandate to exert influence over the health and wellbeing of people worldwide. Despite substantial rhetoric, the data reveals little progress towards gender equality and diversity in leadership across the health sector and no progress on closing the gender pay gap among UK organisations mandated to report on it.

High scoring organisations

GH5050 identified 45 high scorers in 2021, including 12 very high-scoring organisations and 33 high-scoring organisations. High performers per sector have also been recognised. Scoring is based on performance across the four dimensions of the 2021 analysis.

12 Very high scorers
  • EngenderHealth
  • GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance
  • Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria
  • International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
  • Population Services International (PSI)
  • Save the Children
  • Scaling Up Nutrition
  • Stop TB Partnership
  • Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
  • UN Women
  • Unitaid
  • United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
33 High scorers
  • AbbVie
  • Abt Associates
  • Africa Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC)
  • CARE International
  • Dalberg
  • Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
  • Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi)
  • Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
  • Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND)
  • Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
  • Global Financing Facility (GFF)
  • Health Action International
  • Jhpiego
  • Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS)
  • Medicines Patent Pool (MPP)
  • Mercy Corps
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Palladium Group
  • Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (The Partnership, PMNCH)
  • PATH
  • Plan International
  • Population Reference Bureau (PRB)
  • Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition
  • Sanofi Espoir Foundation
  • Sonke Gender Justice
  • UNHCR
  • UNICEF
  • Unilever
  • United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
  • United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
  • World Bank Group
  • World Food Programme
  • World Health Organization (WHO)

While an organisation is found to perform well overall, a red dot indicates that there are one or more areas, as reported in the Gender and Health Index, where organisational performance is low.

Highest performers by sector
BILATERALS AND GLOBAL MULTILATERALS
  • Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
  • Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
  • Unitaid
  • World Bank Group
CONSULTANCY
  • Dalberg
  • Palladium Group
FAITH BASED
  • Islamic Relief Worldwide
NGOs & NON-PROFITS
  • CARE International
  • EngenderHealth
  • International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
  • Population Services International (PSI)
  • Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition
  • Save the Children
  • Sonke Gender Justice
PHILANTHROPIC AND FUNDERS
  • Global Financing Facility (GFF)
  • Sanofi Espoir Foundation
PRIVATE SECTOR
  • AbbVie
  • Abt Associates
  • Unilever
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
  • GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance
  • Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria
  • Scaling Up Nutrition
  • Stop TB Partnership
REGIONAL ORGANISATIONS
  • United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
RESEARCH AND SURVEILLANCE
  • Africa Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)